


Beautiful, Merciless

by ohhgreywarden



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Claude von Riegan Has Trust Issues, Claude von Riegan Needs a Hug, Edelgard von Hresvelg Needs a Hug, Edelgard von Hresvelg has trust issues, Edelgard von Hresvelg's Scars, F/M, Mentioned Bernadetta von Varley, Minor Bernadetta von Varley/Hubert von Vestra, Post-Black Eagles Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Table Sex, They give each other hugs, and also have sex lol same thing right?, not necessarily in that order, other background relationships mentioned as well but not enough to tag, past one-sided attraction mentioned, she doesn't really appear enough to tag her as a character, so many trust issues here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:02:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28651707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohhgreywarden/pseuds/ohhgreywarden
Summary: Edelgard has long resigned herself to the knowledge that when all is said and done, hers is a solitary path. But when Claude fulfills his promise to aid her fight against Those Who Slither in the Dark, she can't help but wish...It felt like an unspoken game between them, a push and pull that would never amount to more before the tides of politics forced them apart. Never mind that Edelgard’s other attractions and crushes had faded out but this one never quite did, it could never be more than a distraction from the cold truth that Edelgard is on a path that precludes romance. She has only allowed herself to indulge in her fantasies in the dark of night to soften that truth.Besides, even if she were not so certain that love was not meant for her, Claude was one of the last people she should want as a partner. While they are tentative allies now, they have spent too much of their adulthood at odds with one another for it to be anything short of a mess.And yet, Claude returns her feelings, and they are alone.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	Beautiful, Merciless

**Author's Note:**

> Edelgard/Claude. What an underrated, amazing pairing. This started off as me just wanting to write them having sex on a table in a military camp tent and then spiraled into this absolute monster of a fic (my longest yet!).
> 
> Please enjoy!

“There he is.”

Edelgard points at the small blur in the dark sky above the eastern horizon.

Hubert squints at it as well, then shakes his head.

“Lady Edelgard, I cannot be not sure if your eyesight is exceptionally good or if mine has started failing.”

“Perhaps if you took more breaks from paperwork to rest your eyes…”

Edelgard gives her companion a teasing smile. He rolls his eyes in response.

“You sound like my wife.”

“Well, Bernadetta and I both care deeply about you so maybe you should listen to us, Hubert.”

Her voice is gentle, but not nearly as gentle as Hubert’s expression when Bernadetta is mentioned. It’s wonderful to see, really.

Hubert’s voice cuts through her thoughts.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Claude did keep his promise to aid us, but I still can’t help but wonder what his angle might be.”

Edelgard sighs; she knows it is Hubert’s duty to keep her safe, but their classmate-turned-enemy-turned-ally has given them no real reason to suspect he has an ulterior motive.

“He may simply be worried that Those Who Slither in the Dark will try to gain a foothold in Almyra if they’re not squashed out here.”

“Let us hope there is no more to it than that,” Hubert says. He begins to pace slowly. “I hope you were not wrong to place your trust in him.”

“I can’t say if I actually trust him,” Edelgard laughs drily. “We just need all the help we can get with so much of the Strike Force missing.”

Most of Edelgard’s friends and former allies had eagerly agreed to join her invasion of Shambhala, but the absence of those who could not come (or, in the case of Linhardt, refused outright to engage in more fighting) is still sharply felt. But Petra cannot take time away from governing Brigid, and Ferdinand and Dorothea cannot leave their newborn daughter, so the Black Eagle Strike Force had simply needed to reassemble without them.

Trusted or not, Claude and his Almyran forces are vital assets to Edelgard.

“I haven’t thanked you and Bernadetta enough for joining me here, Hubert,” Edelgard says fondly.

Once again, Hubert’s face takes on that special smile reserved for when he thinks of his wife.

“You know we would not have missed this for the world.”

“I know, but I’m still grateful to have you here. Not just for your military aid but because,” something tugs at Edelgard’s heart as she continues, “I am always in awe of how much happier she makes you. It’s nice to see your softer side come out.”

Hubert laughs.

“There’s no clearer sign that Bernadetta has brought out my softer side than the fact that I am not offended to be told I have one. But the truth is, she has made me happier than I ever thought possible.”

The tugging at Edelgard’s heart blooms into a full thought, and she speaks it quietly.

“I’m glad that you were still able to find happiness with her while fighting beside me, Hubert. In truth, I may be a little jealous. It’s unlikely I will ever have something similar.”

She refuses to meet Hubert’s eye when he turns to look at her, afraid she’ll see pity there.

“Do not be so sure. I once thought I would never marry unless you commanded it, after all.”

“Perhaps,” Edelgard replies, although she does not believe it. She sighs. “Well, we’d best get ready to go over strategies when Claude arrives.”

“Of course, Lady Edelgard.”

~~~~~~~~

The strategy meeting after Claude’s arrival goes smoothly. With only a vague knowledge of the layout of the caves they will enter tomorrow, there’s only so much planning they can do.

Claude, for his part, seems to thrive in the uncertainty of it all. Edelgard finds herself admiring the way he comes up with plans for contingent after contingent, responses to “what ifs” she had not even considered. He is a delight to watch, animated and charismatic as he ever was, and razor-sharp to boot.

She was right to seek his aid.

As the hour grows later and the yawns from her generals more frequent—Edelgard even catches _Jeritza’s_ eyes drooping, and there is little the man enjoys more than discussing battle—the meeting is adjourned. They will regroup after breakfast to make final plans before the invasion of Shambhala.

Edelgard herself could keep at it for hours, energized as she is by the cocktail of nerves, determination, and far too much tea in her body. As such, she’s quietly relieved when Claude hangs back as the others file out; attempting to sleep in such a state would certainly prove fruitless at best and lead to terrible nightmares at worst.

“You look like you could keep going all night, Your Majesty,” Claude says as the tent empties, flashing Edelgard a charmingly conspiratorial smile. “Want some company while you keep pouring over your maps?”

She could use the company, even if Claude is wrong in his assessment of why. Spending the night strategizing with Claude is certainly more appealing than being alone, and so she returns the smile and gestures at the table. “By all means.”

“Lady Edelgard.”

Hubert’s voice comes from behind her shoulder, and if she hadn’t spent most of her life around him she might be surprised. Instead, she sighs and turns to face him slowly. As she does, she notices Bernadetta hovering by the flap of the tent.

“I shall remain and escort Claude to his tent when you are done.”

Claude gasps dramatically. “Aw, come on, Hubert! Do you really think I’d try something when I’m surrounded by the entire Imperial army?”

“There are things you can do other than attempt assassination,” Hubert says, eyes boring into Claude’s. Edelgard is impressed that Claude doesn’t flinch.

“I appreciate your concern, Hubert, but I’ll be fine,” Edelgard says firmly. Hubert opens his mouth to protest. “You should rest.”

“That’s right, Hubert,” Bernadetta pipes up from the entrance. “ _We_ should rest.”

For a moment, it seems as though Hubert might resist, but when he looks over at Bernadetta, his stiff posture relaxes slightly.

“Very well.” He strides over to his wife and allows her to entwine her arm with his, then turns back to Claude. “Do _not_ make me regret this.”

As they exit the tent, Edelgard is pretty sure she hears Bernadetta say “Oh, you won’t, dear.”

Claude chuckles. “I remember when Bernadetta ran away screaming whenever she saw Hubert, and now she has him wrapped around her little finger. It’s cute.”

Edelgard makes a small hum of agreement. She’s suddenly very aware that she and Claude are alone, the first time they’ve been alone together since a handful of scattered conversations at the Officer’s Academy.

_Has the tent always been this warm?_

The silence drags on a little too long. Edelgard is unsure how to break it as thoughts she would really rather keep to herself try to force their way out of her mouth.

Claude clears his throat and she breaths a silent sigh of relief.

“So… I have a few ideas for what to do if they have some of those giant golems…”

They return to the desk to pour over rough maps once again. Edelgard finds it harder and harder to focus on the task as she stands too close to Claude and their hands occasionally brush as they gesture over the maps.

Each accidental brush of his hands against hers feels like a little shock of electricity, and Edelgard can no longer push her attraction to Claude to the back of her mind. For years, she’s managed so well to ignore her little infatuation with Claude (she refuses to acknowledge it as more than a _little infatuation_ ), and it’s embarrassing how quickly that falls apart once she’s alone with him.

Edelgard even begins to wonder if Claude is knocking his fingers against hers on purpose, if he’s caught on to the way she stumbles over her words with every touch. After all, Claude has flirted with her in many of their past interactions, including when they met to battle one another in Derdriu. Of course, Claude flirts with other people in an attempt to distract them, but she can’t help but begin to wonder if…

But no, that would be too much to hope for. Even if Claude did return her affections, what could become of it? Once this is over, he will return to Almyra and she to her singular task of guiding Fódlan into the light.

And besides that, they may be allies now, but after years spent as enemies, after that battle in Derdriu when she could have felled him in one stroke of her axe after he told her she was _lovelier than ever_ , Claude likely still holds some resentment for her. Surely that is the reason for the tension Edelgard perceives from him.

“Edelgard? Are you falling asleep on me?”

She blinks herself out of her thoughts at the sound of her name.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking about something else.”

“And here I was, doing my best to keep your full attention!” Claude shakes his head in mock disappointment. “Care to share?”

“Um…”

Yet again, words try to force their way out of her mouth. She wants and does not want to tell Claude how much she wishes he’d just kiss her already, or even take her hand, no matter how much that might complicate things.

She pushes those thoughts aside to ask, “Is it strange for you? Helping out someone who could very well have killed you?”

“A lot of people have tried to kill me, Your Majesty,” Claude says with a smirk entirely too carefree for the topic. “I could tell you weren’t going to do it, so I really don’t have any hard feelings.”

“How could you tell?” she asks. What she doesn’t ask is _“How could you tell when even I didn’t know I would let you live until the Professor suggested it?”_

“People who want me dead tend to look at me a certain way, and it’s not the way you look at me.”

He winks at her and she flushes slightly. Clearly he has at least _some_ idea of the emotions behind how she looks at him.

“Besides, I honestly believed in your ideals, and I trusted you and our dear old professor to realize that, and that I wasn’t enough of an obstacle to kill. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Edelgard’s words to Hubert earlier that evening come back to her; _“I can’t say if I actually trust him”_ she had said. It’s still true, but to hear the man who had once called himself _“the embodiment of distrust”_ say that he trusted her makes her want to trust him too.

Claude seems to think her silence means she wants him to say more, so he continues.

“Or did you want to hear that it’s not strange to work with you because frankly, I’m just happy I can finally fight alongside you, and that I’ve regretted that I didn’t join you against the church every day of my life, but I was 18 and stupid and didn’t want to jeopardize the goodwill I’d built up in Fódlan for a crush. Is that the version you wanted to hear? Because that’s true too.”

Edelgard’s face grows hotter and she gasps.

“A crush? You can’t just say things like that…”

Once the words are out of her mouth, she wonders vaguely if she should have focused more on Claude’s assertion that he wished he had joined her all those years ago. But after an evening of becoming increasingly flustered at the slightest touch of Claude’s hand, Edelgard can only think about how the impossibility of him returning her feelings had proven not just possible but true.

“What, did you think I was just messing around all those times I flirted with you?”

“Well, yes!”

“I’ll admit I’m not above using my charms sometimes, but with you? I definitely meant it. Besides, I could tell you liked it.”

At times, Edelgard had wondered if she should have been more offended by Claude’s flirtations or scolded him for impropriety. Indeed, she frequently chastised herself for feeling flattered, fully aware that this was simply Claude’s way of disarming her and that it was not special treatment he reserved for her.

But she did flirt back, sometimes. She noticed the way he would smile just a little more genuinely when she shot back with a coy remark instead of offense.

It felt like an unspoken game between them, a push and pull that would never amount to more before the tides of politics forced them apart. Never mind that Edelgard’s other attractions and crushes had faded out but this one never quite did, it could never be more than a distraction from the cold truth that Edelgard is on a path that precludes romance. She has only allowed herself to indulge in her fantasies in the dark of night to soften that truth.

Besides, even if she were not so certain that love was not meant for her, Claude was one of the last people she should want as a partner. While they are tentative allies now, they have spent too much of their adulthood at odds with one another for it to be anything short of a mess.

And yet, Claude returns her feelings, and they are alone.

Edelgard knows it’s a terrible idea to indulge her fantasies like this, knows that it will only lead to more pain later. But in this moment, she does not think as the Emperor of Fódlan but as who she is beneath that title: a woman of twenty-five who has not felt a loving touch in almost a decade and a half, who has only kissed one person and nobody she was attracted to, who has cried herself to sleep more nights than she can count when the weight of her loneliness became too much to bear in silence.

It’s a terrible idea, but so is the thought of dying without stealing this one moment.

She takes a steadying breath.

“I never would have admitted it when we were at the academy together but… I did find your attentions less grating than those of certain others.”

Claude laughs and Edelgard winces; _how is_ that _the way you decided to phrase it?_

“I was aiming for ‘completely irresistible’ but I guess I’ll take ‘less annoying than Sylvain.’”

She giggles, and _oh_ how strange it sounds to her own ears. “And Lorenz.”

“Lorenz flirted with _you_ , Your Majesty?” Claude raises his eyebrows. “The audacity…”

“Claude…”

Her heart pounds in her ears as she takes a tiny step closer to him.

“I don’t want to talk about Lorenz and Sylvain now…”

Claude leans against the table. In spite of his casual posture, Edelgard notices that his face is flushed.

“I get the feeling you don’t want to talk about strategy either.”

Slowly, so slowly, she reaches for one of his hands. “I want you.” Claude swallows, and Edelgard watches the movement of his throat with hungry eyes. “I know you want me.” Her voice is a whisper as she pulls his hand to her waist. “What’s holding us back?”

Claude straightens and slowly draws Edelgard closer with both hands around her waist. _Has he always had freckles?_

“Politics. War.” His eyes drop to her lips, and she parts them with a little sigh. “But somehow none of that seems to matter now, does it?”

She kisses him.

Edelgard hears and feels Claude take a sharp breath as their lips meet. She stands on tiptoe to reach him, and even so he has to bend his head down. Her fingers clutch at his shoulders for balance. Time seems to freeze, or perhaps it’s simply that Edelgard wishes it would so she could spend an eternity kissing Claude before she must return to reality.

This kiss feels nothing like Edelgard’s first.

It was only a few weeks since Byleth’s disappearance, since Edelgard had become an enemy of the Church of Seiros and of some of her former schoolmates. Even with her friends who had by some miracle stood by her, the loss of the professor—her only infatuation to last nearly as long as that for Claude—left her feeling terrified and alone.

That was why she kissed Hubert one night. Hubert, who was unwaveringly loyal and by all means seemed to be in love with Edelgard, and for whom she had never harbored romantic feelings. Hubert, who deserved so much better than to have Edelgard toy with his emotions because she had no idea how to deal with her loneliness and thought she could drown it out in the arms of a man she loved only as a friend.

After he began courting Bernadetta, Hubert mentioned that kiss for the first time since Edelgard had fled the room in tears, and he thanked her for how it helped him realize he was not really in love with her. _“Kissing her feels different,”_ he said with a fond smile.

Now, Edelgard understands precisely what he meant. When she kissed Hubert, she felt such horror that she wondered if she simply hated kissing. But kissing Claude feels like the first ray of spring sunlight after a harsh winter, warm and bright and intoxicating.

She is desperately, irrevocably in love with him, she realizes. It should scare her, to know she’s in love with a man she cannot keep, but in a way it’s a relief. She knows at least that she is capable of love, and that she will have this one perfect memory as she makes her solitary way through life.

Claude pulls back just slightly to catch his breath, lips still brushing Edelgard’s as they pant together. His eyes are half-shut, beautiful long lashes framing green eyes blown wide with desire. She commits the image to memory before surging forward once more.

They kiss hungrily, like they are condemned prisoners and each other’s last meal all in one. Claude tastes faintly of pine needles, and while his favorite tea has never been Edelgard’s preference, in this moment she has never craved a flavor more.

Edelgard breaks away from Claude’s lips with a gasp when he picks her up by the hips and seats her on the edge of the table. She’s closer to his height now, and he immediately takes the opportunity to press open-mouthed kisses below her jawline.

She spreads her legs and pulls Claude between them by his hair as he continues kissing and sucking at her neck. He moans loudly and digs his fingers into her waist. Edelgard tilts her head back to give Claude easier access to the skin above her collar.

“Claude, please…” Her voice is breathy as his lips pass over the front of her throat; she’s sure he can feel the vibrations as she speaks. “Please, fuck me.”

She doesn’t really consider her request until it’s already been spoken, but it feels inevitable. If she only gets this one encounter with Claude, she may as well make it something worth remembering.

As soon as the words leave her mouth, Claude straightens to kiss her deeply, letting her push her tongue past his lips as he tentatively cups one of her breasts. Edelgard leans into his touch with a whine.

“Fuck, Edelgard,” Claude moans. “I think this time you might actually kill me.”

She nips at his lower lip and his hand squeezes on her breast in response. Both cry out in unison.

“Just a little death, I hope,” she murmurs before taking her turn to kiss his neck.

He laughs, and Edelgard feels it not just through her mouth but her whole body.

“That’s the idea.”

They break apart for a brief moment. Edelgard pulls her skirt up until her garters and smallclothes are exposed, and Claude sets his gloves on the table.

His hands find the bare skin of her upper legs and he leans in to kiss her. Edelgard feels the touch of his skin against hers like a gentle flame, and she wonders when the last time was that her heart felt so warm. The kiss, too, is tender, almost too sweet for their position. She can’t decide if she wants to keep kissing like this or return to the rough kisses from earlier; before, at least, she could ignore her longing for more than this stolen tryst.

Edelgard hurriedly tosses her gloves aside and grips Claude’s hands on her thighs. He smiles against her lips.

“Impatient, are we?”

“Maybe a little.”

She leans back to return the smile, and Claude chases after her lips. Both of their hands find their way to her garters at once, and they fumble to try to detach them from her stockings without breaking the kiss. It proves to be futile, but Edelgard makes short work of them when they pause for a moment, then quickly resumes kissing him.

Claude’s fingers hook under the waistband of her smallclothes. They adjust their positions slightly so he can pull them down, over her stockings and boots until Edelgard kicks them to the ground.

She lets Claude push her thighs apart, his hands moving torturously slowly up her legs. He kisses her as his fingers finally meet their goal, and she grips his hair once more, savoring the softness of it against her bare fingers.

Edelgard has been turned on for far too long, and she can only whine against Claude’s mouth as the tip of his finger slides easily into her body. Claude slips his tongue into her mouth at the same time that he adds another finger, experimentally pumping them in and out.

“You’re so wet,” he murmurs, a tone of awe in his voice.

“I’ve wanted this since everyone else left the tent,” Edelgard admits. _And for years before that._

Claude’s two fingers stretch her more than two of her own, but it’s still not enough to sate her arousal. She rocks her hips against his hand, and urges him higher until his thumb reaches her clit. His movements are a little clumsy as he tries to balance stroking her with his thumb and fucking her with his other fingers, but it’s still enough to leave Edelgard moaning softly.

She wonders if he’s never done this before, either. The thought that Claude—beautiful, radiant, and charming but oh-so-closed-off Claude—may be as inexperienced in love and sex as she is nearly makes her cry. _He deserves so much better_ , she thinks, but she’s too selfish and turned on to really care.

She pulls herself out of her thoughts to nip at his jawline. He cries out in response and jerks his hand roughly into her, but it’s still not enough.

“Claude, just fuck me already.” Edelgard does her best to sound commandeering but her voice shakes too much, and instead it comes out as a desperate plea.

He withdraws his fingers from her and she groans.

“Your wish is my command.”

His smile is close to his usual one, but Edelgard could swear there’s something fonder in it. She’s probably imagining things.

Claude’s hands fall to his trousers. Edelgard watches intently as he undoes them quickly and pulls out his cock. With her lack of experience, she has no way of really knowing if it’s particularly large or small or completely average—it certainly seems big to her, although that may just be because she’s so much shorter than him—but she doesn’t care. The sight of it sends a hot wave of lust through her body as she imagines how it will feel inside her.

He strokes himself slowly with the same hand he used to finger her, and it’s still glistening with her wetness in the candlelight. Edelgard bites back a moan.

With his other hand, Claude gently tilts up her chin until she looks him in the eyes, then leans in to give her a searing kiss. Her eyes shut and she grasps at his shoulders to pull him closer.

“You ready, beautiful?” Claude murmurs against her lips. Her heart flutters at the pet name.

“Yes,” she breathes, kissing him again. “Yes, yes.”

His knuckles bump against the inside of her thigh and she gasps. Claude breaks the kiss to glance down between their bodies and a moment later, she feels what must be the head of his cock pressing against her entrance. It certainly feels big like this. Edelgard wills herself to relax as he pushes forward.

There’s a slight burn as she takes him in for the first time. It’s not quite painful, but also not yet pleasurable. She lets out a little whimper, and Claude stills his hips.

“Too much?” he asks, meeting her eyes once more. Edelgard fights the urge to look away, the naked concern in his eyes almost overwhelming.

She shakes her head. “It’s just new, that’s all.”

If Claude hadn’t already guessed that she is—no, _was_ —a virgin, he gives no indication of being surprised. He simply kisses her forehead and gently strokes her loosely-tied hair.

“Yeah, same here,” he admits, and Edelgard feels a tiny rush of pride at the confirmation that she’s his first, that this night will surely leave the same impression on him as it will on her. “Just let me know when you’re ready for more, okay?”

“I am,” she breathes. “Just… slowly, alright?”

By the time he’s all the way inside her, the burning has given way to a marvelous fullness. She crosses her legs behind him and draws him into another kiss. Claude holds her close, one hand still in her hair and the other around her back. He hasn’t even started moving yet and she’s already overwhelmed by the sensation of being so close with him.

But soon enough, he does move; it’s just a tentative little rocking of his hips at first, but Edelgard still moans at the feel of his cock dragging in and out of her. The sound seems to spur Claude on, and he makes his strokes a bit longer, but still slow as he gets his bearings.

“You feel amazing,” he says with a grin against Edelgard’s lips.

“You’re not— _oh!_ —not so bad yourself.” She throws her head back as he begins to thrust harder into her.

Claude chuckles through open-mouthed kisses to her jaw. “Guess I have to try a bit harder.”

And _oh_ , how he does.

Whether through some instinct or simple luck, Claude soon manages to find the perfect pace to make Edelgard cry out his name in pleasure. She clasps a hand over her mouth, then buries her face into the cloth of his jacket to muffle her gasps and moans. It certainly wouldn’t do for a concerned soldier—or worse, Hubert—to investigate the cries coming from her tent.

After all, what would they think if they saw her like this? The powerful Emperor of all Fódlan, her skirts hiked up around her waist as a foreign prince, a man she had deposed of his dukedom, fucks her until she can barely think…

This would be absolutely scandalous if others found out, and Edelgard cannot bring herself to care. Claude’s arms around her and his cock inside her are her own personal heaven. It’s too much and not enough all at once, and she knows she could become addicted to this feeling.

She wishes this could happen again.

Claude’s hips slow for a moment; he still thrusts just as deeply into her as before, but it’s much slower and his breathing is shaky. Edelgard wonders if he’s trying to hold back his orgasm until she can have hers, and slips a hand between their bodies to rub at her clit. She knows from touching herself that she can’t reach her climax without this, no matter how many times she’s tried to bring herself off just from fucking herself on her fingers.

Before she lets her fingers settle at her clit, Edelgard drags them down a little lower. She traces her lips, stretched around Claude and so wet, and moans.

Claude moans, too, as Edelgard’s fingers brush against his cock. He begins to fuck her more quickly again.

“Getting close, Your Majesty?” His lips brush her ear and she shivers.

Edelgard is past the point of being able to tease, so she just cries out, “Yes, yes, don’t stop!”

Their mouths find each other as Edelgard starts to stroke herself with trembling fingers. The heat low in her stomach grows stronger by the second, and she bites down on Claude’s lip as she uses all her willpower to keep herself on the edge of orgasm for as long as she can. Her body aches for release, but Edelgard knows that every second she can hold back is one more second before she must let Claude go forever.

Eventually, though, even Edelgard’s iron will cannot fight the needs of her body. With a moan of Claude’s name, her orgasm crashes through her body. She tightens around his cock as he continues to fuck her, his own rhythm becoming slightly erratic as he groans into her neck.

For one brilliant moment, nothing matters to Edelgard except for Claude as her world explodes into pure pleasure.

She strokes herself until she’s too sensitive to keep it up, and slumps against Claude’s shoulder. She still clenches around him involuntarily as he finally lets himself chase his own climax.

“So close, Edelgard…”

“You can… inside me… please…”

Her body tries desperately to give her another orgasm as Claude gasps and his hips stutter.

“You sure?”

Obviously Edelgard knows that if she lets him finish inside her, there is a chance she will become pregnant even if she sees a healer immediately the next morning. But in this moment, as she clings to Claude and knows her stolen night with him is coming to an end, she doesn’t care. She just knows that she needs to keep him close until he must go.

“Please…”

Her lips ghost against his ear, the one with the golden earring, as she pleads with him. She puts as much desperation into that one syllable as she can, as though somehow he might hear the impossible things she wants with him and magic them into existence.

“Oh, Edelgard…”

The way that Claude moans her name as he spills inside her should not be so beautiful, she thinks, because now she wants to hear it again and again. She buries her face in his shoulder once more to try to stop the tears forming in her eyes.

Claude makes no move to pull out after his hips still, and instead holds Edelgard close to him, resting his head against hers. Edelgard can’t remember the last time someone held her; it must have been before she was taken away and tortured, when her siblings were still alive and she was still just an innocent girl and not a living weapon. She’s forgotten how very wonderful it is to touch another person for longer than an accidental brushing of hands or elbows, and wonders how she’s lived so long without touch.

Holding Claude feels even more intimate than having sex with him, somehow. She is terrified and never wants it to stop.

But stop it must, eventually.

When Claude takes a step back and his soft cock slides out of Edelgard, she feels empty in more ways than just physically. She drops off the table as he tucks himself back into his trousers. One of her feet has fallen asleep from perching on the edge of the table, and she stumbles when she puts weight on it.

“Easy there, Edelgard.”

Claude catches her at her elbows as she steadies herself. Even this small touch sets Edelgard’s heart aflame. She’s frozen in place by his hands, and simply stares down at their arms until Claude clears his throat.

“I, uh… I should probably go back to my tent, huh?”

He doesn’t have a chance to move away again before Edelgard clutches at his arms.

“You can stay the night, i—if you want.”

There’s an ever-present sadness in Claude’s eyes, no matter how at ease he may seem. Edelgard has always wondered if anyone else noticed it, or if she can simply recognize it so easily because it’s the same look she sees in her own eyes every time she looks in a mirror. That sadness clouds the brilliance of his green eyes even now, and Edelgard knows that Claude needed this stolen night as much as she did.

“Okay.” He gives her a gentle peck on the lips, and Edelgard quickly draws him into a deeper kiss. “I’m all yours tonight.”

Edelgard is fairly sure she’s never heard a more wonderful sentence. Even though _tonight_ is all they can have, she hopes it will be enough to satisfy her for the rest of her life; there’s a large part of her that knows it won’t, but it’s all she has.

She suddenly becomes very aware of their clothes. It’s almost absurd, how they’ve had sex and yet still haven’t seen one another naked. Her hands start to tug mechanically at her clothes as her mind wanders.

Apart from healers and those who had inflicted them, almost nobody has seen the scars that litter Edelgard’s body. She started covering herself after she noticed the looks of concern and pity from the palace staff in Enbarr, and it’s simply been easier that way. Baring her scars means questions that can lead to cracks in her carefully-constructed façade of control, and especially now that she’s the Emperor, she cannot afford that.

But Claude deserves to know. He deserves to know precisely what he’s agreed to fight against, why Those Who Slither in the Dark must be eradicated before they cease to be content that Edelgard eliminated Rhea as they wanted and push for more control over humanity.

She turns away from Claude to place her clothes on her valise. How much does he know? Did Lysithea tell him about the experiments or did she too keep them a tightly-guarded secret?

And how will he react to the sight of her scars, to the knowledge that she worked alongside those responsible for them? Will he pity her like the others? Will he be disgusted? There’s a perverse part of Edelgard that hopes he will react poorly, because perhaps that will finally allow her to fall out of love with him.

The tops of her stockings have… _fluids_ on them, as does her slip and even some of her underskirts. She wonders if she’ll have time to launder them herself so as to avoid anyone else seeing and putting together what happened tonight.

“We probably should have cleaned you up a bit, huh?”

Edelgard turns to see Claude staring at the stockings draped over the end of her valise with a slightly sheepish expression. He’s removed his jacket and shirt, and Edelgard can’t help but rake her eyes quickly over his bare chest. Claude looks like the perfect model for a marble statue, all lean and toned and gorgeous with his own sprinkling of scars, although of course white stone could never do him justice. And oh, how Edelgard would love to run her hands and mouth all over him...

“Claude, we had sex,” Edelgard says, shaking herself out of her fantasy. He flushes slightly and turns to look at her. “Things were bound to get messy.”

He doesn’t look at the scars that are clearly on display now that Edelgard is wearing nothing but her brassiere. His eyes flick to her breasts and the juncture of her legs—Edelgard’s stomach heats just slightly at that, even with her recent orgasm—but Claude mostly just looks at her face.

Even in the low candlelight, there’s no chance he could have missed the web of silvery scars that cross Edelgard’s body. For him to not stare at them, to not even seem to acknowledge them, is far from what she’s come to expect.

Claude always does seem to surprise her.

Indeed, she’s not really sure how to respond to Claude’s non-reaction. He has questions, she’s certain he does, but his face betrays nothing to help her begin to answer them.

Edelgard takes a deep breath; as usual, she chooses the direct approach.

“I’m sure you have questions about my scars,” she says. She feels small, even shorter with her boots gone, and vulnerable with her concealed blades piled among her clothes.

Claude shrugs. “Only if you want to talk about them.”

This, too, is unexpected. Usually even those who care most about Edelgard have let their curiosity get the better of them; she vividly recalls Dorothea’s gasp of “Oh Edie, what happened?” when her sleeve rode up at the academy.

But, she supposes, few people understand what it’s like to keep secrets in plain sight as well as she and Claude do.

She takes a step closer to Claude and holds out her arms toward him.

“Did Lysithea ever tell you about her second Crest?”

The scars along Edelgard’s arms catch in the candlelight, and Claude sucks in a breath. He stares at her arms, and for once it seems that golden tongue of his is lost for words.

“They called it _blood reconstruction surgery_ ,” she continues. “Lysithea and I were the only ones to survive. My brothers and sisters…” She shakes her head; _no time to start crying now_. “The ones that did this are who we’re fighting tomorrow.”

“Shit,” Claude hisses. “I knew what happened to you two must have been brutal but I didn’t realize… I know it’s not much but I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“Thank you, Claude,” she says softly, meeting his gaze for a moment before looking down at her own arms and turning them back and forth. “There’s more to it than that, though.”

“More than torture and a shortened lifespan, you mean?”

There’s so much concern in his voice that it nearly breaks Edelgard. _Please don’t hate me…_

“They wanted to give someone the Crest of Flames to make them into a perfect weapon to take down the Church of Seiros. That someone… is me.”

She can’t meet Claude’s eyes and just stands stiffly staring at her own arms. He’s smart, he’ll figure out the implications behind her words and surely he’ll hate her for it, for working with the very group responsible for mutilating her and so many other children…

“So that’s why you didn’t fight them sooner,” Claude says, and his voice is astonishingly neutral.

“Even with the Imperial army, I couldn’t fight the Church without their help.”

If her voice is desperate, Edelgard doesn’t care. As much as it would help her heart for Claude to hate her (or so she tells herself to try to make the end of this affair easier), she knows losing him as an ally would be disastrous.

“And you really wanted to take down Rhea, right? You weren’t just doing that because it’s what they wanted?”

Edelgard finally meets his eyes again, and sees no malice in them. It seems she truly cannot predict Claude.

“The Church of Seiros lied to the people of Fódlan for a millennium,” she replies, perhaps a bit too defensively in the face of his mild reaction. “I know you were never a believer, so surely you understand why I had no choice but to work with Those Who Slither in the Dark to end Rhea’s reign—”

“‘Those Who Slither in the Dark’? Is that what they’re called?” Claude’s eyebrows raise in curiosity.

“That’s the name Hubert and I gave them.” Edelgard searches Claude’s face but he remains unreadable. “We would not have worked alongside them if we felt we had a choice, I swear.”

Claude looks away from Edelgard with a sigh. _This is it, he’s going to refuse to help…_

“I’m not judging you, Edelgard,” he says, and Edelgard feels her shoulders droop.

“Really?”

It feels too good to be true, that Claude truly is not horrified by her actions.

“Don’t get me wrong, I probably would have hated you for it once, but I’m not that naïve anymore.” It’s strange to hear Claude call his younger self naïve when he had presented himself as worldly and distrustful from the moment he set foot in Garreg Mach, but the boy who believed everything could be solved simply with clever words was indeed naïve in hindsight.

He glances down at his own chest, and points to a scar near his collarbone. It’s faded but still quite large; if Edelgard had to guess, she’d say it was the oldest scar on Claude’s body. “See this? I got it the first time someone tried to stab me. It wasn’t even the first time someone tried to kill me, but it was the first time they almost succeeded. I was eight.”

Edelgard takes a hesitant step towards Claude. She moves a hand toward him, but lets it fall to her side. They are not lovers, she reminds herself, not even tragically star-crossed lovers. Instead she folds her arms below her breasts.

(They are not lovers, but the way Claude’s eyes flick to her breasts as they push together still makes her wish they could be.)

“Oh Claude, I didn’t know…”

“You of all people should understand why I don’t really talk about it,” Claude replies with a shrug, and of course he’s right. “But there’s a reason I brought it up. My father let slip a few years later who ordered the assassin. It was a… I guess the closest translation is ‘Countess’. Lady Sahar. From that moment, I hated her like I’d never hated anyone before. Who tries to kill a kid just because of who his parents are?”

“It’s terrible,” Edelgard agrees. While she never knew the details, she always could tell that Claude’s childhood had been full of his own hardships. Nobody with a happy childhood had eyes like theirs.

“But that’s not all,” he continues. He starts to pace slightly, just a few steps in each direction. His hands, she notices, are balled into fists. “Just last month I had to do some work with Lady Sahar. And it turns out I still hate her for what she tried to do to me, and for how she acts like she respects me now that she knows I’m competent, but because her territory is politically important I just sucked it up and worked with her like it was nothing.”

“Oh.”

“I’m glad you can finally give those monsters what they deserve, at least,” he says with a tight smile. “It’s an honor to help, really.”

“Thank you, Claude,” Edelgard murmurs.

She suddenly feels very tired. The expectation that Claude would reject her, it seems, wore her out—although fucking him on the table certainly contributed as well. She casts off her brassiere and sits on the edge of her cot. Falling asleep will mean the end of her time with Claude will come sooner, but she supposes that sleeping in his arms this one time will be worthwhile.

“I do mean it,” Claude says as he kicks off his boots. “All of it. Sometimes there is no right way, and you’re still trying to make it right so that counts for a lot.”

Edelgard whispers her thanks again as she unties her hair and settles under the covers. Claude certainly isn’t making it easier for her to inevitably let him go, but at least she can say she truly has no regrets about tonight.

When Claude takes his trousers off, he reveals a long scar down his left calf. Edelgard frowns at it.

“I gave you that, didn’t I?” she asks quietly. “At Derdriu.”

Claude looks down at the scar as he sits on the cot. “Yeah, I guess you did.”

“I’m still amazed you were willing to help me after I did that,” she says as he settles into bed beside her. He’s still wearing his smallclothes; Edelgard can’t decide if she wishes he’d taken them off.

“Well, if you’d hurt my wyvern it might have been a harder choice,” Claude says with a sly grin that quickly fades when he sees the concern on her face. “But seriously, Edelgard, I did—I _do_ —trust you. You trust me, right?”

Edelgard opens her mouth, but no words come out. She knows she _wants_ to trust Claude, and that perhaps with time she will, but she’s never been good at knowing when trust begins. The only people she’s ever trusted implicitly are the members of the Black Eagle Strike Force, and only then because they openly pledged themselves to her in the face of the Church.

Claude snorts into the silence, and Edelgard hides her face against her pillow.

“I came inside you and you’re still not sure if you trust me?!”

She feels her face grow hot against the pillow, and lifts up just a little to see Claude staring at her with eyebrows raised in amusement.

“I can still send you back to your tent, you know,” she mutters.

Claude gasps dramatically and places a hand over his heart. “Oh, cruel Emperor! I throw myself upon your mercy!”

Edelgard gives his hand a playful shove. “You are a strange man, Claude.”

“Thank you,” he replies with a grin that really should not be as charming as it is. He pulls her hand to his lips and gives her knuckles a brief kiss. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

And it was nice, she thinks. As much as he could be infuriating, she would not have fallen in love with Claude were it not for his peculiarities.

She smiles back. “Flattery may not get you everywhere, but it will allow you to stay in my bed tonight.”

“Then let me give you more.” He wraps both hands around Edelgard’s, and kisses her knuckles again. This time, he allows his lips to linger, looking into her eyes all the while. Her heart skips a beat. “I don’t think there’s anyone more beautiful than you.”

Edelgard flushes again. “Quite the compliment coming from you.”

She’s pretty sure Claude’s cheeks redden slightly. “Hush, I’m supposed to be the one flattering you. You’re so passionate too. Ambitious. Driven.”

“Claude…”

His words make Edelgard ache. She can almost imagine a future with him where he can keep saying such things to her forever, and where she trusts him without reservation. It should frighten her, and perhaps it does, but mostly she feels a terrible longing.

Claude can’t continue this, she decides, and shuts him up by using her free hand to pull him into a kiss. He kisses back enthusiastically but so tenderly.

When he breaks the kiss, he presses his forehead against hers and murmurs against her lips.

“Marry me?”

Edelgard goes cold.

She feels like a fool for believing Claude could want anything as simple as a stolen night with her. Of course he had something up his sleeve, likely since he agreed to help her in return for sparing his life all that time ago. She should have listened to Hubert when he said Claude might try something, she thinks.

She doesn’t think as she reaches under her pillow for the dagger there. Before Edelgard can fully process what her body is doing, she’s pushed Claude backwards onto the cot, her blade unsheathed and pointed at his throat.

“Whoa, whoa, why the—?!”

“You…” Edelgard’s voice shakes with rage and pain. “I can’t believe you, Claude.”

She wonders vaguely if the panic in his eyes is the first genuine emotion he’s shown her all night.

“Calm down, Edelgard, please!” Claude makes no move to push her away. He simply holds his hands up in surrender. Edelgard does not lower her blade.

“Was this all one of your little schemes?” 

“What?! No!”

“You seduced me, took advantage of my feelings for you, and you thought you could marry me and undermine everything I’ve worked for!”

It’s the only possible explanation. Claude surely knows as well as she that nothing can come of their tryst. Doesn’t he?

“Edelgard, I swear that’s not what I was doing!”

“You expect me to believe this wasn’t a plot?” Edelgard narrows her eyes to fight off the tears forming in them. _Foolish…_

“Yes! It’s not!”

“Why else would you want to marry me?”

“Because I love you?”

Claude’s tone is almost disbelieving, like Edelgard had asked him the color of the sky and he was shocked she had to ask. He speaks as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world, but Edelgard is still stunned; how could she have known…?

She has the presence of mind, at least, to set the dagger beside Claude instead of letting it slip through her fingers as she sits back.

“No, that can’t be…” she says with a trembling voice and a shake of her head. She crosses her arms across her chest, folding in on herself as the tears begin to fall from her eyes.

“What do you mean _no_?” There’s an edge of mirthless, panicked laughter to Claude’s voice. Edelgard feels the cot shift as he sits up, but she can’t look at him.

“How could you love me after everything I’ve done?” The question comes out as barely more than a whisper, directed toward the dagger lying unsheathed next to Claude. Another version of Edelgard would revel in Claude’s confession, but this one knows at the very core of her being that people like her do not deserve love.

“You freed Fódlan from an outdated and corrupt system and you’re still trying to make sure things change for the better. How could I _not_ love you?” Claude’s voice is earnest, and he shifts toward Edelgard, clearly longing to reach out to her.

“Is that what you see?” She finally meets his gaze again, and searches within it for a hint of insincerity that she knows she won’t find. “Not all the blood I’ve shed—all the blood I may still have to shed—to do that? When that blood could have included yours?”

“Even if I don’t completely agree with your methods, I know you did what you felt you had to. Besides,” there’s a trace of a crooked smile on Claude’s lips, “I admire that you know when to be merciless.”

A tiny sob wracks Edelgard’s body. She knows he’s right, but that doesn’t make it easier to bear that Claude loves her in part for one of the reasons she knows she doesn’t deserve his love.

“I don’t want to just be known as merciless.”

“Of course I know that’s not all there is to you, Edelgard. You’re… Can I hug you?”

Edelgard nods. Claude sheaths the dagger and sets it on the ground before pulling her to his chest. Even in her fear and confusion, being held by Claude steadies Edelgard, and she rests her head against his shoulder as her tears slow.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as ambitious as you, and that includes me,” Claude says as he begins to stroke her hair gently. Edelgard can hear the crooked grin in his voice, and smiles into his shoulder in spite of herself. “You saw what needed to change and you did everything you could to change it. That’s why I love you.”

“I—I never thought… People like me don’t get to have people fall in love with them.”

“Is that really what you think?”

“I didn’t intend for tonight to go anywhere,” Edelgard confesses. As she speaks, her protestations sound hollow even to herself. “I thought I could, I don’t know, get you out of my system and then go on my way through life, alone.”

“So _that’s_ why you were so desperate for me,” Claude says. Edelgard lifts her head to stare blankly at him, and the half-smile fades from his lips. “No, no, I shouldn’t be so flippant about this. I have to admit I was a little hurt that you have so little trust in me that you thought I’d seduce you as some sort of scheme, but I can’t really blame you after everything you’ve been through.”

Fresh tears slide down Edelgard’s cheeks and onto Claude’s bare skin. She knows she doesn’t deserve for him to be so understanding, but she wants it desperately.

“If you’ll let me, Edelgard,” he continues, “I’ll do anything in the world to make us work. Anything.”

He kisses her forehead when he finishes speaking. It takes Edelgard a moment to find her voice again as she processes his words.

“Claude, that sounds so wonderful, but…” She takes a deep breath and looks into his eyes; there’s nothing but tender affection in them, save for the sadness that always lurks behind his gaze. “When I set out on my path, I knew I would be hated, that I might go down in history as a bloody tyrant and that it would be up to my successors to truly create the world I want to see. This is a lonely path, and it’s already a miracle that I have so many by my side.”

“So have one more.”

Edelgard wants to say yes. There is little she’s ever wanted more in her life. But years of being certain she would have to give up her desires bubble up to the front of her thoughts no matter how she tries to let them go.

“How would that even work? Fódlan and Almyra have only just stopped being enemies.”

“I don’t know.” Claude gives her shoulder a squeeze and _oh_ how she wishes she could stop being a pessimist about this. “We’ll figure it out.”

“You didn’t have a grand plan for that when you proposed to me?” Edelgard asks, a hint of teasing returning to her voice.

“Asking you to marry me always seemed like such a wild fantasy to me that I never bothered to sort out the details.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where you didn’t have some scheme in mind.”

Edelgard is glad, at least, that she can fall back into this routine. It makes her imagine…

“Hey, I do things without scheming all the time!” Claude says with mock affront. “Besides, I never thought I’d get to bed you outside of my dreams, so I guess we’re even.”

Edelgard blushes; she wonders if Claude can feel her cheek heat against his shoulder. “And how long have you been dreaming about that, exactly?”

“Since before I fell in love with you, to be honest. I was a teenager when we met, it kind of just happened…”

She laughs, just a little, and the way Claude pulls back to smile at her makes her heart ache.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t occasionally have dreams like that about you, too,” she murmurs.

“And here I thought you were in love with Teach.”

“I was infatuated with her, yes,” Edelgard replies with a roll of her eyes, “but it was never really love. Besides, she’s happy with Jeritza now, and I am happy for her.”

“Are you sure? You seem sad.” Of course Claude would recognize a smile that doesn’t reach Edelgard’s eyes.

She sighs. “I no longer have feelings for the professor, Claude. It’s like I said, I never thought I was meant for love.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, everyone hated my dad having a kid with the foreigner he married for love so much that I always figured I was doomed to a loveless political marriage just to make the Almyran nobles happy.”

Edelgard traces the scar at Claude’s collarbone. “And yet you asked me to marry you.”

“That I did.”

They fall silent. Edelgard realizes that, in spite of all her attempts to convince Claude that marrying her was a terrible idea—to convince herself—she never actually refused him.

It seems Claude has noticed, too.

“Look, you don’t need to give me an answer now, or ever really, I’m just happy to spend the night with you, Edelgard, really—”

“El.”

“What?”

“It’s what my family called me. Nobody calls me that other than the professor, now.” Edelgard takes a deep breath; there was only ever one thing to say, really. “I think that if we’re going to be married you should call me El.”

The smile that breaks across Claude’s face is the first Edelgard can remember that reaches his eyes, his very soul. She wants to bask in that smile forever, and maybe now she can.

“Okay, El.” He kisses her hand. “El.” Her cheek. “ _El_.” Her lips.

Edelgard feels like she’s floating, only tethered by Claude’s embrace and his kiss. She digs her nails into her own arm, briefly, just to make sure this is not a dream.

“And you can call me Khalid,” he says, the foreign sound of the _kh_ popping against her lips.

“Khalid?” She learned his true name some time ago, of course, but has never heard it spoken aloud before. She can’t quite recreate the pronunciation.

Claude—no, Khalid, she corrects herself—laughs. “You’ll get there eventually.”

“You know, when we were at the Academy, I always wondered if Claude was your real name.”

Khalid chuckles. “I guess I never did as good a job of hiding that I’m from Almyra as I thought.”

“No, Khalid, you did not,” Edelgard says with a smile.

“See? You’re already getting better at pronouncing it!”

She giggles. “Of course there was also that time when you went on a speech about what an excellent fake name _Claude_ was and I couldn’t help but get suspicious.”

“Oh, gods, that was when we were in Abyss, right?” He releases Edelgard and flops dramatically against the pillows. “I was so not subtle, huh?”

Edelgard opens her mouth to give him some witty reply, but the words die in her throat as she looks down at him. Her eyes are drawn immediately to the tent in his smallclothes.

“Did watching me cry turn you on?” she teases.

Khalid laughs nervously. “Does it make it better or worse that it was actually you pointing the dagger at me?”

Edelgard flushes. “So that’s what you meant when you said you liked me being merciless.”

“Well, not entirely… Anyway, you can just ignore it and we can get to sleep, it’s already half gone.”

“What if I don’t want to ignore it?” She makes her best attempt at being sultry, lowering her voice and looking down at him through her lashes.

It’s successful, if the way Khalid’s pupils dilate as he looks up at her is any indication. “In that case, it would be my honor to make love to you properly.”

 _And that’s what this will be_ , she thinks as she bends to kiss him. The idea of making love to Khalid after fucking Claude—never mind that Khalid and Claude are one and the same, the man himself and the façade he wears that few even realize is a façade—somehow feels fresh and new, like another first time.

Edelgard’s hand trails slowly from Khalid’s jaw down his torso. His muscles flex under her touch, and she feels a thrill when she remembers that she has the rest of her life to learn just how he likes to be touched.

Khalid too takes the opportunity to explore Edelgard’s body as they kiss lazily. One of his hands is tangled in her hair, not pulling at it but simply massaging her scalp in a way that makes Edelgard melt.

His other hand cups her breast at the same time that she begins to rub circles around one of his nipples. She giggles into the kiss and he breaks it to mumble, “I guess we both had the same idea, huh?”

“I like to play with my breasts when I touch myself,” Edelgard confesses, and Khalid moans softly. “I’ve always thought it would be better if it was someone else’s hand, though.”

“And what do you think?” He squeezes at her gently. “Is it better?”

“So much better,” she sighs contentedly. “You can do it a little harder.”

He obliges and she moans. Her thighs press together; she’s already so wet again that she can feel it at the top of her legs.

She runs her hand down his body again until her fingers trace the V of his hips where one side disappears below his smallclothes. “Can I touch you, Khalid?”

“Please, El…”

Edelgard tugs Khalid’s smallclothes down to expose his cock before wrapping her hand around it. She gasps in surprise as it twitches at her touch, and she’s pretty sure she feels it grow harder after her first few tentative strokes. It’s a heady, powerful feeling to know she has this effect on him, and she feels herself get impossibly wetter.

She’s not sure how long they stay like this, kissing and touching and exploring with no real urgency. Knowing that they can take their time without rushing to completion fills her whole being with warmth.

But eventually, after Khalid’s hand has been settled between her legs for some time, Edelgard can wait no longer. She sits up—he whines at the loss of her body—and pulls his smallclothes down his legs and off before settling herself against his cock.

Khalid gently pulls Edelgard into a kiss as she starts to grind against his erection. She presses her body against his, desperate for as much contact with his skin as she can get. The deep chill in her soul from years of loneliness starts to melt away from his touch, and she craves more.

They would probably both be content to get off like this, with her so wet and rubbing her clit against his cock. But Edelgard wants to feel him inside her. She reaches between their bodies to position his cock, and Khalid moans into her mouth as she takes him again.

It’s easier this time, now that she’s had him inside her before, and she soon sinks all the way onto his cock. Her hair falls in white curtains on either side of their faces as she breaks the kiss to look into Khalid’s eyes. Even with the low light, his eyes have never looked more beautiful to her than they do now, filled with so much joy and love that it makes her blush even in their intimate position.

Khalid reaches up and gently tucks a lock of hair behind Edelgard’s ear. “You’re spectacular, El.”

She catches his hand and kisses his knuckles. “You too, Khalid.”

The smile he gives her is small, tender, and so genuine that she cannot resist leaning back down to kiss him. He keeps smiling against her lips and cradles her jaw with his hand.

Edelgard begins to rock her hips slowly. In this position, everything about the way their bodies join feels new and different. The feel of Khalid’s bare skin against hers is electric, and she finds herself trying to touch as much of him as she can.

As her hands explore his body, his settle on her hips, gently guiding them as he begins to thrust upward to meet her strokes. If she thought before that she could become addicted to the feeling of their bodies moving together, she knows now that she already is; it is nothing to fear, however, not a destructive desire but a pure, beautiful need.

Their bodies meet again and again, and the waves of pleasure through Edelgard’s body grow ever higher. At some point Khalid moves a hand between their bodies to stroke her clit as she rides him, and their kisses turn into gasping and panting against each other’s mouths.

Khalid starts to rub gentle circles over her hipbone with his thumb, and somehow this tender motion is what makes Edelgard cry out and shudder. She is not yet overwhelmed with her orgasm, but with something perhaps more powerful still.

“Khalid, I—I love you,” she gasps.

“I love you too, El. So, so much…”

“And I trust you, I do…”

His hips buck up against hers, and she sees stars as his cock drives deeper into her.

“I know, love, I know.”

For as long as she can remember, Edelgard has feared vulnerability. But with Khalid, there is nothing to fear. When his fingers and his cock push her over the edge of her climax, she feels safe, loved.

As she comes down, she feels Khalid tense beneath her with a gasp of “Oh, _El…_ ” This time, she’s aware of when he releases inside her, a pulsing and a little rush of heat, and her body clenches down on him a little harder in her aftershocks.

She settles her body weight on top of him and he draws her into a tight embrace as the aftershocks subside. Their foreheads press together and she closes her eyes as their breathing slows and synchronizes.

Edelgard is, for one of the few times since she was a child, completely happy. Not even the battle ahead can dampen her spirits, for she truly believes that with Khalid beside her she can accomplish anything.

“I cannot wait to marry you.” Khalid breaks the silence, a broad grin on his face.

Edelgard snorts lightly. “You know, we’ve already done the thing people are supposed to look forward to when they get married. Twice. In fact, if you hadn’t noticed, you’re still inside me.”

She clenches down on his softening cock with a smirk, and Khalid moans.

“Oh, I definitely noticed. But am I not allowed to be excited to declare my love for you in front of the world?”

Her mouth opens before her brain can catch up and produce words; she’s still dumbfounded that Khalid not only loves her but is willing to do anything for his love.

“I can’t wait for that either,” she finally says.

Khalid kisses her tenderly, and rolls them onto their sides. Edelgard curls into him with a happy sigh. His cock pulls out of her with their movement, and Edelgard silently laments the state of her bedding as she feels their combined fluids leak out.

“Besides, we do have the honeymoon to look forward to as well,” he whispers, and Edelgard shivers. “The tradition of honeymoons started in Almyra, did you know that? One of our best ideas.”

“I’ll say.” The prospect of weeks where she is expected to do little but make love with Khalid has Edelgard’s body attempting to become aroused yet again in spite of her exhaustion.

“Of course, we do need to deal with the logistics of our marriage before that,” she says.

“So practical,” Khalid sighs. “That is one of the things I love about you, though.”

Tears prick at Edelgard’s eyes, but this time she’s fairly certain they’re tears of joy. “You know I didn’t just say I trust you because I was about to come, right? That I do really trust you?”

He nods. “And I am honored that you trust me, El. I know it’s not easy for you. It’s not easy for me, either.”

“We can learn to trust together, then.”

“That sounds perfect.”

Khalid kisses her again, and again, and again as they drift off to sleep.

The outcome of the next day, of every day after that, is still uncertain, but Edelgard knows that together, she and Khalid will accomplish everything they want.

**Author's Note:**

> This is fanfic so I can take liberties but PLEASE pee after sex lol.
> 
> Also poor Ferdinand, he's about to come back from parental leave to find out that he and his Almyran counterpart have to negotiate the prenup from hell (I was actually going to have them talk about that after the second time they have sex but it broke the mood).
> 
> You can find me on twitter [@YourGirlRatBaby](https://twitter.com/YourGirlRatBaby) if you want to talk about edelclaude! (or ferdithea or hubernie or linmari haha)
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!
> 
> Edit: because I like to explain my fic titles, "Beautiful, Merciless" is basically a very veiled reference to La Belle Dame Sans Merci (which could be translated as "the beautiful, merciless lady") because of how Edelgard initially intends to basically seduce Claude and abandon him. What can I say, I like being pretentious sometimes.


End file.
